Seafarer
by Kagome-reincarnation
Summary: Invited to aid the Lady Kikyo in a purification rite one island away, Kagome couldn't have possibly dreamed that she'd be kidnapped by pirates - and familiar ones, at that! Oneshot.


Kagome had been pleased to have been invited by the Lady Kikyo to help a nearby lord. He'd been having some troubles because of a poltergeist and had been recommended to Lady Kikyo by one of his friends. He lived on a neighboring island, and Lade Kikyo had decided that she'd need someone to help her since the lord's house was expected to be fairly large and the lady herself did not often travel beyond the borders of the island to work her purification rites.

Kagome had been absolutely ecstatic to have been invited along. Which was why, staring at the four walls of the small, small cabin, she wanted to scream in frustration.

"Hand over everything of value!" a woman had called from the deck. Kagome had been surprised. Had they been boarded by pirates? She'd considered staying below when she'd heard the ruckus from above, but had dismissed the idea, thinking she'd be perfectly safe on the small boat – the soldiers were there to protect them, after all.

Oh, how wrong she'd been.

The second she'd opened the door to the open air of the deck – before she'd so much as stepped out onto the deck – a hand took hold of her arm and roughly dragged her out onto the deck.

She'd cried out in surprise, stumbling to regain her balance. As she straightened, she arched her back with a grimace of pain. Whoever had grabbed her had twisted her arm up behind her.

"Wh-what is it?" she'd gritted out. She'd received no reply – instead, she'd felt something strike her at the base of the skull. Her sight went spotty for a moment, her balance shot. She'd fallen heavily against her captor, unable to stand straight on the already rocking boat. Surprised, said captor had released her arm.

If only she hadn't been seeing black and yellow spots swimming across her vision – she might have turned to strike the pirate – for surely it must have been a pirate – across the face. But, alas, she didn't have her vision so she had to settle for what she could: sliding to her knees on the wooden flooring, covering her eyes with a hand. She'd been hoping that they'd be free of the spots once she removed her hand, but she'd been very much incorrect. The yellow spots hadn't even gone away in the first place, persistently flashing against the back of her eyelids and shadow of her hand.

She'd groaned, deciding it was a lost cause. She'd tried to get to her feet, but it was to no avail. Another blow had knocked her out easily, and she'd woken to find herself in the ridiculously small cabin she was in currently, the door obviously being the only way out.

Kagome glared at the door. She'd tried to open it, but it had been locked. She'd expected as much, but she'd been hopeful. After all, she'd come to beneath the covers of the surprisingly small bed – with a drastically pounding headache. But she did have to give it credit – for such a tiny bed, it was very comfortable.

After some time had passed – she didn't even really know how long it was – she'd grown bored. She had no way of telling time and there was no light seeping beneath the door. All she had was single flickering candle… And because she didn't know what kinds of fat and lard and wax the candle was made of – and at what ratios – she couldn't guess at the passage of time in the least.

She'd paced about in the small cabin once her migraine had left. It was a small room, and that was made even more obvious when she'd walked about in it. She hadn't even taken ten steps before she'd had to turn around! Irritated, confused, and obviously oblivious to her location, she'd finally sighed and begun to look around the room.

There was a small shelf of books above a beautifully made mahogany desk, complete with an equally beautiful mahogany chair. Looking at the papers that were there, she realized that she was aboard the _Quest_, a ship belonging to a rather notorious band of pirates. They'd been stealing valuables from all sorts of ships and all sorts of people. The only exception, she'd heard, were the destitute. Something that she'd heard, though, had surprised her very much.

They hadn't stolen from the poor – rather, they'd given them money.

But one thing remained true and it was a fact that worried her. Immensely. There had never been a report of a kidnapping connected to them.

Kagome swallowed as the thought occurred to her. What would happen to her?

She set the papers back on the desk before lying flat on the bed, staring at the ceiling. It was just as wooden as every other part of the room, and she was starting to hate the sight of it. Feeling frustrated, scared, and, most importantly, angry, Kagome glared at the door again. A thought occurred to her then, fueled by her determination to get away. No one had ever said that a key was the only way to open a door.

Several failed lockpick attempts later, she'd begun to bash herself against it in earnest. While logically, she acknowledged it was a very intelligent idea, her current state was entirely irrational and, therefore, illogical. To the part of her mind that was extremely pissed off and wanting nothing more than to get out of the claustrophobic room and pound the living crap out of the first person she saw.

It was with this sentiment in mind that she threw herself at the door over and over again. She'd completely fallen into the pattern of throwing herself at the door, falling away from it, and throwing herself at it again that she hadn't realized that the door had been opened.

She only saw two hands coming up to catch her as she landed against the other person, effectively slamming them both into the opposite wall of the hallway. The two fell to the floor quite bruised.

"Ow," Kagome moaned on the other person. "That was _so_ not supposed to happen."

She heard a chuckle. Looking up, she recognized the cheerful brown eyes that twinkled at her.

Completely astounded, it took her a moment to speak, and even then, she stuttered. "S-S-Sango?!"

She'd stared, dumbfounded at her friend from so long ago. "Hi, Kagome. I see you haven't lost your impulsiveness at all."

Kagome immediately shot up, reaching down to pull Sango to her feet. "What's going on?" she asked her childhood friend, confused.

Sango laughed at her. "Come on," she said cheerfully. "I'll show you." She shut the door that she'd opened – to an armful of Kagome – and took her friend by the hand.

"I want to introduce you to someone," Sango explained. Kagome bit her lip.

"Are you a pirate now?" she asked in a small voice, her eyes pleading.

Sango turned to look at her and only smiled. "Yeah. I am a pirate, aren't I?" Without pausing, she passed several doors before finally coming to another that looked exactly like all the other doors that they'd passed. There was some clattering behind the door, and Kagome blinked. Was this the—

Her question was answered before she'd even finished thinking it. Sango opened the door to the kitchen of the ship.

"Ah, Sango, you've returned," her friend was greeted immediately by a young man who looked to be around eighteen. Two years older than Sango. Turning to look at her friend, Kagome was surprised to see a blush on her face.

"Of course, I've returned, Miroku – it's not as though I went very far!" Sango scolded him.

Observing their interaction, Kagome spoke up, as though in disbelief. "Are you… dating?"

Sango immediately looked at her guiltily from her spot beside the cook whom she'd headed for to smack. "Is it a problem?"

Kagome stared, shocked. "Sango, the man killer of our village… is dating someone?!" As Sango opened her mouth, Kagome lunged at her, tackling her into her boyfriend. "I'm so proud of you!" She grinned at the two shocked expressions.

Without waiting for a reply, she introduced herself to the man that she and Sango were sitting on. "I'm Kagome," she said, "But you'll probably recognize me as Gome if Sango's been using my nickname."

"I see," the cook said thoughtfully, obviously filing her name away. "And I am Miroku. I've been courting Sango for eight months now, and I've known her for three years."

Kagome grinned evilly. "I'm impressed. Sango usually had the guys running for the door when the saw her, she beat them so brutally."

Miroku coughed, blushing a bit. "Well, I can't say that I wasn't scared," he admitted, scratching the back of his head. "That's why it took me so long to finally ask her."

"Yeah, but it didn't stop you two from flirting whenever you saw each other," a voice scoffed from the door. All three of them turned to see the newcomer. He nodded to Kagome. "Yo, long time no see. Remember me?"

Kagome's eyes went wide as the memories mercilessly crashed to the fore of her mind at the sight of her childhood crush.

"I-Inuyasha?!" she exclaimed, shocked.

He grinned at her, nodding. "Good girl."

She scowled at him. "Don't give me that, you lug! You disappeared when we were five without telling anyone! Not even me!" Kagome glared at her friend angrily. "And you didn't even write!"

"Hey, it wasn't as though I could tell everyone I was running away to join a pirate ship!" Inuyasha protested, his hands raised in defense. "And why aren't you scolding Sango, huh? She's here, too, you know!"

Kagome stopped short. He was right. She was still on a pirate ship… But it was a ship with her friends – and a friend's boyfriend – on it.

She sighed, getting off of Sango and her boyfriend. She moved towards a small stool and sat. When Sango and Miroku had gotten to their feet, Kagome looked all three of them in the eye. She sighed again, before gesturing for them all to come closer.

As they had when they were children, Sango and Inuyasha immediately went to go hug her. She hugged back, of course. Miroku, looking a bit confused, simply looked on. Kagome gestured to him, too, and he shrugged, moving forward to join in on the group hug.

A moment later, there was a cry of "Pervert!" and a rather painful looking slap. Kagome had been shocked at first, but then she'd laughed and laughed and laughed, unable to stop for the look on their faces.

When the laughter had finally subsided, she grinned at them easily.

"Alright, someone tell me what happened."

Sango volunteered herself, fully aware that she was less likely to get hit than Inuyasha. "You remember five years ago, when I was eleven and you and Inuyasha were ten?"

Kagome rolled her eyes at her friend. "How could I not? You guys bailed on my birthday!"

Sango and Inuyasha winced apologetically. "Well, we went to join a pirate ship. This one, to be exact."

Kagome raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Er…." Inuyasha was nervously scratching the back of his neck as he spoke. "That would be because we were invited."

Immediately, Kagome's eyes became dangerously stormy. "Invited? Invited?! And you didn't bring me along?!"

Inuyasha withered at her furious look.

"Kagome," Sango tried, wincing as the same glare was turned on her. "We weren't allowed to. It's not like we didn't try, though."

Kagome immediately frowned, feeling betrayed. How could they have left her behind so easily, and without a second glance? And on her birthday? Hurt, she looked away, refusing to let them see her eyes watering.

"You have to understand, Kaggy," Inuyasha tried again, invoking his nickname for her from when they were six. "Our parents were already involved in the world."

At that, some of the anger disappeared from her eyes. She was pleased that it wasn't her fault that she'd been left alone. "Then?"

"You remember my father, right?" Sango asked. Kagome nodded. "Well, he used to be a naval officer. He was a pirate hunter."

"And my pops was a pirate himself. He went legal to marry my mother, but both of 'em kicked it early on," Inuyasha added.

Sango nodded. "They wanted us because of our parents' reputations, and because we actually knew our ways around a ship."

Kagome sighed, trying to exhale her bad feelings as she did so. "Fine," she said simply. There was really no thinking on it.

"Fine?" Inuyasha asked warily, trying to catch her eyes.

"You're forgiven." Kagome said, shrugging. "I had time to think, too, you know. Five years is a long time… And I thought all kinds of things. While this isn't one of them, it's certainly better than the theories I had about you two going off to get married and stuff."

Immediately, all three of them looked disgusted.

"Ew, Gome, that's gross!" Sango sputtered out, her face scrunched up as though she'd smelled something bad. "We were like brother and sister back then!"

"And we still are!" Inuyasha nodded vigorously, shuddering. "Sorry, Sango, but there's no way I'd get married to you unless you were the last girl alive in the world."

"Hey!" Miroku protested, though Sango was nodding vigorously. "I'll have you know that my Sango can easily charm the hearts of many men!" He frowned. "Though I rather don't like that thought. She's mine!"

Sango, touched, smiled up at him. At least until she felt that hand feeling up her derriere again.

By the time they'd finally finished catching up on things and explaining things to Kagome, the priestess was an honorary pirate – since she refused to actively participate – and Miroku had two bright red marks on his face.


End file.
